Lunchtime ASX small cap wrap: Who's feeling like a comic book villain today?

Happy (isolation) Friday. But although the weekend is near, markets never rest — as evidenced by another round of COVID-19 volatility on the ASX this morning.

With the health crisis still in its escalation phase, total positive cases globally topped 1 million overnight while the death tally in New York rose past 1,500.

As the numbers climb, health authorities are reviewing their stance on the use of face masks, which initially were only deemed useful for people who already had the virus and didn’t want to spread it.

This week, the respective mayors of Los Angeles and New York advocated the use of masks or face coverings for all citizens when carrying out tasks outside.

Tutorials for making home-made face masks are now springing up, with medical-grade masks still in short supply.

As more people start resembling Bane for their trip to the shops, we wonder if the phrase “face mask” will join “hand sanitiser” as key words in ASX company announcements that can still send share prices ripping higher.

On the markets front, local stocks began the day almost 2 per cent higher after gains in the US overnight. But the ASX200 gave up those gains shortly after to be treading water into midday trade.

WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Friday April 3:

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CODE	COMPANY	PRICE	% CHANGE	MARKET CAP
OEX	Oilex	0.002	100.00%	$6.9M
SKN	Skin Elements	0.038	100.00%	$12.7M
WCN	White Cliff Minerals	0.004	60.00%	$1.9M
CXO	Core Exploration Ltd	0.034	54.55%	$25.4M
ATS	Australis Oil & Gas	0.032	52.38%	$31.6M
CCE	Carnegie Clean	0.0015	50.00%	$11.1M
BOC	Bougainville Copper	0.255	50.00%	$102.3M
EGR	Ecograf	0.042	40.00%	$12.9M
AUZ	Australian Mines Ltd	0.011	37.50%	$37.9M
SE1	Sensera	0.004	33.33%	$967K
TMX	Terrain Minerals Ltd	0.004	33.33%	$2.2M
M8S	M8 Sustainable	0.056	33.33%	$9.8M
LPD	Lepidico	0.012	33.33%	$41.7M
EUC	European Cobalt	0.014	27.27%	$8.4M
MTC	Metalstech	0.066	26.92%	$5.0M
DCC	Digitalx	0.019	26.67%	$9.1M
AX8	Accelerate Resources	0.019	26.67%	$893K
MOZ	Noni B Ltd	0.57	26.67%	$43.6M
BRL	Bathurst Resources	0.079	25.40%	$107.7M
RHY	Rhythm Biosciences	0.12	25.00%	$9.7M

Core Lithium (ASX:CXO)

Shares in Core jumped more than 40 per cent in morning trade, after the company secured key approvals from the Northern Territory government for its advanced Finniss lithium project.

The company plans to have offtake agreements and construction plans in place by the end of 2020. Managing director Stephen Biggins said the project’s mine-life was expected to “double or even triple” once updated feasibility studies were completed by mid-year.

LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Friday April 3:

Swipe or scroll to reveal the full table. Click headings to sort.

CODE	COMPANY	PRICE	% CHANGE	MARKET CAP
PCL	Pancontinental Oil&Gas	0.001	-33.33%	$5.4M
PMY	Pacifico Minerals Ltd	0.003	-25.00%	$11.6M
IMS	Impelus	0.003	-25.00%	$2.4M
RBR	RBR Group	0.006	-25.00%	$6.3M
AUL	Austar Gold Ltd	0.185	-24.49%	$6.1M
WJA	Wameja	0.07	-22.22%	$109.0M
THR	Thor Mining DRC	0.004	-20.00%	$5.4M
NC6	Nanollose	0.031	-16.22%	$2.8M
MRQ	MRG Metals Ltd	0.006	-14.29%	$7.4M
ENT	Enterprise Metals Ltd	0.006	-14.29%	$3.3M
RIM	Rimfire Pacific Mining NL	0.003	-14.29%	$4.5M
SUP	Superior Lake	0.06	-14.29%	$7.6M
MAY	Melbana Energy	0.003	-14.29%	$7.0M
S2R	S2 Resources Ltd	0.069	-13.75%	$19.8M
ATL	Apollo Tourism & Leisure	0.13	-13.33%	$27.9M
ADR	Adherium Ltd	0.02	-13.04%	$11.4M
OKR	Okapi Resources	0.041	-12.77%	$1.7M
AON	Apollo Minerals Ltd	0.014	-12.50%	$5.4M
AFL	AF Legal	0.12	-11.11%	$8.1M